Paige Spiranac has Addison Rae’s back.
After the TikTok star was apparently offered a gig as a commentator at UFC 264 on Saturday night, social media pounced on Rae for a tweet she posted on fight night.
“I studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment,” Rae tweeted, alongside two photos of her holding a UFC microphone on the red carpet.
The caption seemed to reference Rae’s short stint at Louisiana State University before she left to pursue social media and influencer endeavors.
Amid the backlash, Spiranac — a fellow social media star known for her sultry golf content — swooped in to defend Rae.
“Don’t discredit all her hard work. UFC is smart to hire someone with millions of followers,” Spiranac replied to a Twitter critic who tweeted:
“Should we hire someone who busted their butt through college, and genuinely loves UFC and is hungry for an opportunity in journalism?? Nah, let’s hire Addison Rae because she’s popular for ‘throwing it back’ on Tik Tok.”
Rae was aware of the criticism and later tweeted, “nvm ya’ll got me fired,” above her initial post. She even re-shared a tweet that dubbed her as the “most hated UFC commentator ever.”
Rae’s tweet wasn’t received well by social media users, some of whom slammed her for appearing to diminish the education and work of journalists.
One Twitter user shared under her tweet, “This is disrespectful to all the people who go to college and work their a–es off for jobs like this and sometimes don’t even get them but because Addison has clout she gets them over QUALIFIED sports journalists.”
Others defended Rae and argued that she’s just capitalizing on her TikTok fame and massive following.
“Not her fault she got famous tbh. She’s just talking advantage of the opportunities she received, thanks to TikTok,” one fan replied, asking, “I mean, who wouldn’t? And plus, she was chosen.”
Rae rose to fame over her dancing videos on TikTok, along with her close friendship with Kourtney Kardashian, who was also in attendance at UFC 264 with boyfriend, Travis Barker. Rae has even appeared on a number of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” episodes.
She’ll test out her acting chops on the big screen in her starring role in the “He’s All That” — a remake of the 1999 comedy “She’s All That” with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook.